Born on 8 February 1894 in Higher Crumpsall, Manchester, the youngest son of the eight children of Mr and Mrs John Newell, he was educated at the Manchester Grammar School and the Medical School of the University of Manchester. An undergraduate at the beginning of the first world war, he volunteered for active service and he was given a commission in the RAMC but he was allowed to stay to serve for sixteen months as a student house surgeon/house physician until 1916, when he graduated, MB ChB, and was awarded the Bradley Memorial Scholarship for Clinical Surgery. He then served as a regimental medical officer in France and Italy and early in 1918 was given command of a motor ambulance convoy, having responsibility for the evacuation of the wounded at the battle of Piave. For this service he was honoured by the King of Italy by the award of the Croce di Guerra. Later he commanded a 200 bed prisoner of war hospital in Arquata. He was demobilized in 1919 with the honorary rank of Major, RAMC. On his return to civilian life he set about obtaining surgical qualifications to follow a career in surgery. To this end he held the appointment of demonstrator in anatomy at the University of Manchester. In this capacity he was soon recognised as an outstanding teacher, a virtue which he held for the rest of his professional career. He soon negotiated the necessary examinations, passing both the primary and final examinations at the Royal College of Surgeons at the first attempt, becoming a Fellow in 1921. In the same year he was awarded the degree of MD (Manchester) for a dissertation on the anatomy and histology of the prostate gland. He was continuously associated with the Manchester Royal Infirmary for many years, gradually climbing the surgical ladder and consecutively holding the appointments of surgical registrar, resident surgical officer, surgical tutor and assistant surgical officer. In 1936 he was elected as honorary assistant surgeon at the Manchester Royal Infirmary and in 1948 became a full surgeon in charge of a unit. During this period he served in honorary capacity to many hospitals in the Manchester district, but particularly at the Stockport Royal Infirmary, where he established a large surgical clinic, and on his retirement from the appointment, owing to the pressure of work, he was made an honorary consulting surgeon at the hospital. Bobby Newell was a typical general surgeon and he played a very full part in the clinical and scientific surgery carried out in Manchester during his period of office. He published many valuable papers on a variety of subjects and was in great demand to speak at surgical societies. He was, however, very interested in hospital services and to this subject he devoted much time and energy. In 1938 he delivered to the Manchester Medico-Ethical Society a paper entitled "The hospital of the future" and this was subsequently published. It had always been one of his aims in life to improve the hospital services in Manchester and to make them second to none. It is well recognised that 'What Manchester does to-day the rest of the country does tomorrow'. This was well demonstrated in the 1930's, firstly by the formation of a Council of representatives of the Honorary Medical Staffs of the Manchester Hospitals, and also the Voluntary Hospital Consultative Committee. These committees were formed to facilitate the relationships between the voluntary hospitals and the Public Health Authority hospitals. From them eventually emerged in 1936 the Joint Hospital Advisory Board. This was the first board of its kind to be formed in this country and in many ways was the forerunner of the Regional Hospital Boards as they exist to-day. In all these early committees Newell was a driving force. He was Honorary Secretary from their initiation until their dissolution in 1948. At the beginning of the National Health Service he served as a Member of the Manchester Regional Hospital Board for six years and afterwards for many years on its technical and advisory committees. He was also for a long time a Member of the Board of Governors of the United Manchester Hospitals. He was generally regarded by his colleagues as an ideal committee man and served on the Board of Management of the Manchester Royal Infirmary and many of its sub-committees for many years. His greatest hobby was photography in which he became an expert. His presidential address to the Manchester Medical Society in October 1957 on 'Recollections of my teachers' was illustrated in the most beautiful way with the aid of photographs and films of many of the University's distinguished scientific staff and teachers. A cine-film he made of the British Medical Association's procession to the Cathedral during the meeting of the Association in Manchester in 1929 was much enjoyed and long talked of by his contemporaries. One of his greatest interests was medical illustration and the university department of medical illustrations in the Manchester Royal Infirmary owes its existence to-day largely to his interest and influence. He was a very active member of the British Medical Association. In addition to being successively secretary and President of the South Lancashire and East Cheshire Branch, he served for seventeen years as a member of the Council and also served on many sub-committees. In 1929, on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Association in Manchester, he acted as the local secretary and was largely responsible for the great success of the meeting. For many years he was chairman of the Consultants and Specialists Committee, and was one of the members of the negotiating body which met with the Ministry prior to the introduction of the National Health Service. His large administrative interest and occupation did not exclude him from the scientific society meetings and he was a constant worker for the Manchester Medical Society, of which he held the office of president. He was also successfully president of the section of surgery and served on innumerable other committees of the Society. He was a member of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, and for many years a member of the Moynihan Chirurgical Club with which he made many visits abroad. He was intimately associated with the scientific life of the city and he held the appointment for many years as Dean of Postgraduate Studies. His interests extended, also, to undergraduates and for many years he served on the editorial committee of the Manchester medical gazette. On the 8 February 1959 on reaching the age limit he retired from the hospital service and from private consulting practice. He stayed in the Manchester district for only a short time as he did not enjoy very good health. In 1928 he married Madeline Frances Ree, the daughter of Dr and Mrs Alfred Ree, a director and former president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. He died on 13 January 1969 in Church Stretton and was survived by his wife and two sons and two daughters, but his wife did not survive him by very long.